Kinship Care in Kentucky

When children cannot remain safely with their parents, grandparents,

other relatives, and close family friends often step up to help raise them.
This situation is commonly known as kinship care—or in the case of a
close family friend raising children, “fictive kin.”

Benefits of Kinship Care

Kinship care—ranging from placements with relatives by blood or marriage to placements with caring
adults like teachers or pastors—helps to relieve trauma children often face upon removal from their
home. Children living with relatives or close family friends have fewer behavioral and mental health
problems and experience fewer educational disruptions. Kinship care also helps to keep kids
connected to their culture, family traditions, and siblings.

Types of Kinship Care in Kentucky

Kinship care may be informal or may involve the Department for Community Based Services (DCBS)
in the Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS).

Informal Kinship Care Relative

Kinship Care Due to Removal Foster Care
Children who live with from Home The relatives or close
relatives or close family Children are placed with family friends raising
friends with varying types kin as a result of removal children become
of custody depending on by the Cabinet or courts. certified as foster
arrangements made Either the caregiver or parents. CHFS maintains
within those families CHFS may maintain custody of the child.
custody.

96,000 Kentucky kids

live in kinship care. That rate—9% of all
children—is the highest in the nation.1

Estimated 15,000 kids in kinship

care due to removal from home2 Majority of kids
Of those 15,000, only 5,140 are in living with relatives are in informal kinship care
the Kinship Care Program. No
new families have been able to
enroll and receive financial
support since a moratorium was
put on the program in 2013.3
1,182 kids live in
relative foster care4
SOURCES: 1. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement,
2016-2018. 2. Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department for Community Based Services, kinshipky.org
October 2017, received November 2017. 3. Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services, Department
for Community Based Services, October 2017, communicated July 2018. 4. Kentucky Cabinet for Health and kyyouth.org/blueprintky
Family Services, Department for Community Based Services, Foster Care FACTS, March 2019.